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EXTRACTS 



FROM A FEW OF 



THE MANY HIGHLY EULOGISTIC REVIEWS 

THAT HAVE APPEARED OF 

" anje Stars antr tfje lEartij." 



From the Border Watch, November 5. 

" Our readers, we are confident, will thank us for introducing 
them to * The Stars and the Earth.' Perhaps nothing we ever read, 
of uninspired man's penmanship, has excited within us sensations 
of a more startling yet pleasurable kind. We know not who the 
author is, nor under what circumstances the sublime idea, the out- 
line of which he has here so ably sketched, was first suggested to 
his mind ; but this we will say, that a life of scientific research has 
often borne scantier fruit than is here presented to the world for a 
shilling ; and men have had their names handed down to posterity, 
as the world's benefactors, who have not given birth to any thing 
half so valuable as the theory we have just endeavored to explain. 
We wait with impatience the promised development of the magnifi- 
cent idea partially opened to us in * The Stars and the Earth.' " 



From the Family Herald. 

" This little book contains a new idea, which is saying a great 
deal in these times of intelligence, when all creation is ransacked 
by the genii of poetry, philosophy, science, and theology, for some- 
thing new, striking, and entertaining. It is an idea, too, which is 
infinitely sublime and beautiful. It is one of the most poetical 
ideas which the human mind can entertain, — an idea which is not 
merely chimerical and imaginary, but based on scientific facts, and 
logically true. We wonder it has never been hit upon before. We 
have sometimes been very near it, and are only surprised that we 
never caught it. We give the author full credit for the discovery, 
and thank him for it. 

" Once more we thank the author for a magnificent poetical 
idea, too rich ever to be forgotten by a mind that loves the sublime 
and the beautiful." 

i 



REVIEWS. 



From the Cambridge Advertiser. 

"To oar metaphysical readers — and to all who, as Christians, 
or even as Natural Theologians, desire to have clearer and more 
satisfactory views of the mysterious attributes of the Omniscient, 
and of Time and Space — we cordially recommend this little work." 

From the Cambridge Independent Press. 

" This is a splendid little work, and cannot be too freely circu- 
lated. It is written in a popular style, and with much simplicity j 
valuable not only to adults, but very instructive to children." 

From the Critic. 
" Forty-eight small pages, suggesting food for a life of thought." 

From the Greenock Advertiser. 

" A rare thing, — out of the common path, — and from its very 
novelty worthy of a little examination." 

From the JVottingham Review, October 30. 

" A little work, full of bright guesses and lovely imaginings, 
which will be right welcome to the bold-minded student who dares 
to grapple with problems the most intricate, and who aspires after 
that higher knowledge which is found above the region of sense, 
and can only be even glanced at as the result of a complete and 
continued abstraction of the soul from all meaner and lower asso- 
ciations. Many of the thoughts are striking in themselves, and 
will become suggestive of ideas yet more novel in the intelligent 
reader's mind. We have much pleasure in commending it to the 
perusal of all persons who are sufficiently blessed with imagination 
to comprehend subjects which are above the level of common- 
place." 

From Dolman's Magazine. December, 1846. 

" Limited as is the space of this publication, it contains a fund 
of deep thought which larger works on astronomical subjects have 
seldom developed. It is most logically written. Step by step, from 
undeniable premises, does the writer prove his point, until the 
omniscience of the one great Deity is made apparent to our mental 
vision, and in an extraordinary new and clearer light." 



THE STARS AND THE EARTH ; 



OR, 



THOUGHTS UPON 



SPACE, TIME, AND ETERNITY. 






fixom tlje STtjfrti 3Englfsf) Htiftfon. 

/ 

186 V 

/; " r , ashing" 
BOSTON: 

WH. CROSBY AND H. P. NICHOLS, 

111, Washington Street. 

1849. 



Q-3 



552- 



%1 



BOSTON: 

Printed by John Wilson, 21, School Street. 



RECOMMENDATORY LETTER 



FROM THE REV. THOMAS HILL. 



Waetham, July 24, 1849. 

Messrs. Crosby & Nichols. 

Many thanks, my dear Sirs, for the 
copy of " The Stars and the Earth," a little 
book which I had not before seen, but with 
which I have been highly delighted. It does 
resemble, in the nature of its topics, the conclud- 
ing chapters of my own " Geometry and Faith," 
to which you allude, and which is publishing by 
C. S. Francis, of New York ; but the author has 
selected quite a different example -for illustration, 
and developed with much more minuteness and 
fulness the leadings of his idea. I need not say 
how cordially I should welcome a reprint of 
" The Stars and the Earth ; " if for no other 
reason, for this, that it is pleasant to have fellow- 
laborers in any good work. 

1* 



D RECOMMENDATORY LETTER, 

The identity of religion and philosophy, pro- 
claimed by Erigena in the ninth century, is daily 
becoming more evident. In all departments of 
human thought, the deepest thinkers are striving 
more earnestly after laws ; that is, after expres- 
sions of the thoughts of God. The object of 
science is denned by one of the most distin- 
guished of its students to be, to unfold the har- 
mony of creation; that is,, to unfold the wisdom 
and unity of the Creator''; and in proportion to 
the clearness with which the end of science is 
perceived, will higher attainments be made in it. 
No real advancement -of a*iy of the sciences can 
then henceforward be made, but by men of de- 
vout and reverent spirit. The state of human 
knowledge, proposed by Comte as the aim of 
science, when all facts shall be included in one 
formula or law, must be accompanied by a state 
of human faith which shall see this law to be a 
single thought of the wisdom of God, prompted 
by his love and expressed by his will. To this 
end, all results of every science are leading. 
Not only is " the connection of the physical 
sciences" becoming more manifest, showing one 
Mind to have created heaven and earth, but the 
connection between history and geography ; geo- 
logy and the life of man ; logic, mathematics, 



RECOMMENDATORY LETTER. 7 

taste, and faith ; daily revealing itself, reveals 
also that one Mind as an infinitely kind Father 
of men. 

This little book, " The Stars and the Earth," 
takes up, in its first part, the phenomenon of 
light, and from it shows, with great clearness, 
how the past may be actually present to God, 
and become hereafter actually present to men. 
As Babbage, in his " Ninth Bridge water Trea- 
tise," demonstrates that the shores of the ocean 
shall, through eternity, re-echo the shriek of the 
drowning slave, whom his Christian captor may 
have thrown overboard to lighten the ship when 
hard pressed by pursuing police-boats of the 
nations, so does this unknown author show that 
we need only be present at a sufficient distance 
to have at this instant the testimony of eyesight 
to the monstrous guilt. 

In the second part, the author endeavors to 
show the unity of the Creator, by showing the 
unity of the creation ; and to show the unity of 
the creation, by showing that it may be the em- 
bodiment of a single thought, and occupy neither 
Space nor Time, — these being only modes of 
human perception. In this last point, we think 
he fails ; but the failure is of no consequence ; 
for it is enough to have shown that the universe 



8 



RECOMMENDATORY LETTER. 



may be the embodiment of a single thought. 
The equation of a geometric curve is one for- 
mula, one thought, whether fulfilled by a curve 
drawn in the skies or on an atom. But in his 
ingenious attempts to show that Space and Time 
are capable of indefinite contraction, therefore of 
annihilation, without the destruction of pheno- 
mena manifested in them, he suggests thoughts 
of the relation of Space and Time to Eternity 
and Omnipresence, which are surpassed only 
perhaps by those suggested in Prof. Lovering's 
paper in the " Cambridge Miscellany." 

The circulation of this book would be, I am 
convinced, of benefit both to science and religion. 
To religion, by showing, so far as it goes, that 
science leads to faith. To science, by pointing 
out to younger students the true spirit in which 
she should be wooed ; still more, by presenting 
her in a lovely and attractive garb to the notice 
of men. It is a book of sublime poetry ; and it 
will be a happier day for all men, when they 
have learned that as poesy signifies creation, so 
is the creation poesy ; and science causes the 
heart of its faithful student to sing a perpetual 
hymn of praise and joy. 

Yours truly, 

THOMAS HILL, 



THE STARS AND THE EARTH. 



It is a well-known proposition, that a lumi- 
nous body arising at a certain distance from 
an observer cannot be perceived in the very 
same instant of time in which it becomes 
luminous, but that a period of time, although 
infinitely short, exists whilst the light, our 
only medium of vision, passes through the 
space between the object and our eyes. 

The rate at which the light travels is so 
exceedingly rapid, that it certainly has 
never been observed, nor have any attempts 
to measure it been made in the insignificant 
distances at which objects upon the earth 
are visible to us. But since we see bodies at 



10 THE STARS 

a distance immeasurably greater than the 
compass of terrestrial dimensions (namely, 
in viewing the stars above), the most acute 
calculations and observations have enabled 
astronomers to measure the speed of light, 
and to find that it travels at a rate of about 
two hundred and thirteen thousand miles in 
a second. 

This number is not quite accurate ; but, 
as we how only propose to lay down a 
general idea, for which the close reckoning 
of astronomical calculation is not necessary, 
we will content ourselves here, and in the 
following pages, with adducing a general 
average number. 

Thus light travels two hundred and thir- 
teen thousand miles in a second ; and, as 
the moon is two hundred and forty thousand 
miles distant, it follows that, when the first 
narrow streak of the crescent moon rises 
above the dark horizon, nearly a second and 
a quarter elapses before we see it ; for the 



AND THE EARTH. 11 

light takes this time to pass from the moon 
to our eyes. The moon, therefore, rises 
above the horizon a second and a quarter 
before it becomes visible to us. # 

The sun, ninety-five millions of miles 
distant, four hundred times further than the 
moon, requires a period four hundred times 
longer than the moon (i.e. four hundred 
times five quarters of a second) to send its 
light upon our earth. Hence, when the sun 
rises, i. e. when the first ray from the outer- 
most edge of the sun's disk reaches above 
the horizon, about eight minutes elapse be- 
fore it passes into our eyes. The sun has, 
therefore, already risen eight minutes before 
it becomes visible to us. 

The distance of the planet Jupiter from 
our earth, at the time when it is the greatest, 
is nearly six hundred and seventeen millions 
of miles. This is six times and a half as 
great as the distance of the sun, and there- 

* We take no notice of the refraction of the light. 



12 



THE STARS 



fore the light requires fifty-two minutes to 
penetrate from Jupiter to us. Lastly, Ura- 
nus runs his solitary course at a distance of 
eighteen hundred millions of miles from us : 
his light requires, therefore, twenty times as 
long a period to travel to us as that of the 
sun, i. e. more than two hours ; so that Ura- 
nus has really risen two hours, when we 
first perceive him. 

No planet has hitherto been discovered 
more distant than Uranus; but an infinite 
space exists beyond, separating our sun and 
its system of planets from the nearest fixed 
stars. 

The distance of the fixed stars from our 
earth was, until a very recent time, when 
the measurements of Struve and Bessel 
were crowned with such glittering results, 
a deep, inscrutable secret ; but now we 
know that the nearest fixed star, namely, 
the brightest star in the constellation of 
Centaur, is about eighteen billions of miles 



AND THE EARTH. 



13 



distant. Its rays of light, therefore, pene- 
trate to us in about three years ;# that is, the 
ray of light which meets our eye from this 
star was not developed and emitted at the 
same moment but three years ago. 

Struve has calculated, with respect to the 
well-known bright star Vega, in the constel- 
lation of the Lyre, that its light consumes 
twelve years and one month in reaching the 
earth ; and, according to the measurements 
of Harding and the inquiries of recent astro- 
nomers, the following numbers have been 
deduced as the average distance of the fixed 
stars from us. 

A ray of light requires before it reaches 
the earth, from a star of the 



1st magnitude . 


. . 3 to 12 years 


2d „ 


. . 20 years. 


3d 


. . 30 „ 


4th 


. . 45 „ 


5th 


. . 66 „ 


6th 


. . 96 „ 


7th „ 


. . 180 „ 



14 THE STARS 

Moreover, Struve, from the dimensions 
of his telesqppe, and from the observation of 
the fact that a star of the twelfth magnitude, 
seen through it, has as much light as a star 
of the sixth magnitude seen with the naked 
eye, concludes that the distance of a star of 
the twelfth magnitude is forty-one times 
greater than that of one of the sixth magni- 
tude ; and, consequently, that the smallest of 
these stars visible to him is at a distance 
of twenty-three thousand billions of miles, 
and requires a period of time for the travel- 
ling of the light to the earth, as great as 
four thousand years. That is, the ray of 
light from a star of the twelfth magnitude, 
which we may mention is only perceptible 
by means of a very good telescope, has, at 
the time it meets our eyes, already left the 
star four thousand years, and since that 
time has wandered on in its own course, 
unconnected with its origin. 

"We have hitherto confined our considera- 



AND THE EARTH. 15 

tions to our system of fixed stars ; and we 
will not at present overstep this limit, al- 
though it would be easy, were we to enter 
into hypotheses, to multiply indefinitely these 
enormous proportions hitherto adduced. 

According to a conjecture first made by 
the great Herschel, and afterwards further 
developed and rendered intelligible by Mad- 
ler, this entire system of fixed stars, forms, 
if we may use the expression, a single lens- 
shaped canopy. That is, we, with our sun, 
are situated nearly in the middle of a space, 
having the form of two watch-glasses, 
placed with the concave surfaces towards 
each other. The surfaces of this canopy 
are studded tolerably equally with fixed 
stars. But as we are a thousand times 
nearer those situated above and below than 
those at the edges of this hollow lens, so 
the distances between the stars immediately 
above us seem greater, whilst the legions of 
those distributed at the edge are seen in 



16 THE STARS 

densely crowded masses. We may con- 
sider the Milky Way as the edge and further- 
most limit of this set of fixed stars, where 
the infinitely distant crowds of stars are col- 
lected in such masses, that their light flows 
together into a whitish cloud, and no longer 
permits us to isolate one star from another. 

Beyond this oar lens, Herschel and the 
most recent astronomers imagine, that the 
spots of clouds which appear like oval flakes 
in the sky are other entirely distinct and 
independent systems, which float at such an 
immeasurable distance from us, that the 
light has to wander millions of years in 
reaching to us. 

It is, however, as we before remarked, 
sufficient for our purpose to take into con- 
sideration only the stars of the twelfth mag- 
nitude, from which the light can travel to 
us in four thousand years. From what we 
have already said, viz. that the ray of light 
meeting our eye is not sent forth from the 



AND THE EARTH. 17 

star at the same moment, but arrives here 
according to the corresponding and requi- 
site number of seconds, minutes, or years, 
it follows that we do not see the star as it 
is, but as it was at the time when the ray of 
light was emitted. 

Thus we see the star in Centaur as it was 
three years ago, Vega as it was twelve 
years and one month ago, and so on to the 
star of the twelfth magnitude, which we 
look upon as it shone four thousand years 
ago. Hence follows the conclusion which 
has frequently been made by astronomers, 
and which in its result has become popular, 
viz. that a star of the twelfth magnitude may 
have been extinguished or set four thousand 
years ago, whilst we, nevertheless, continue 
to see its light shining. 

This conclusion, when applied to each of 
the former positions, gives the following 
results. 

We do not see the moon as it is, but as it 

2* 



18 



THE STARS 



was a second and a quarter before ; i. e. the 
moon may already have been dispersed into 
atoms for more than a second, and we should 
still see it entire and perfect. 

We do not see the sun as it now is, but 
as it was eight minutes before ; Jupiter as 
it was fifty-two minutes ; Uranus as it was 
more than two hours before ; the star in 
Centaur as it was three years ago ; Vega as 
it was nine and a quarter years ; and a star 
of the twelfth magnitude as it was four thou- 
sand years ago. 

These propositions are well known, and 
have already been published in popular 
works upon astronomy. 

It is really marvellous that nobody has 
thought of reversing them, and of drawing 
the very remarkable and astonishing conclu- 
sions which pour upon us in a full stream 
from the converse ; and it is our intention 
here to examine the converse and the infer- 
ences which may thence be drawn. 



AND THE EARTH. 19 

The following is the relative view of the 
matter. As we have before remarked, we 
see the disk of the moon, not in the form in 
which it now is, but as it was five quarters 
of a second before the time of observation. 

In exactly the same way, an imaginary 
observer in the moon would not see the 
earth as it was at the moment of observa- 
tion, but as it was five quarters of a second 
before. An observer from the sun sees the 
earth as it was eight minutes before. From 
Uranus the time between the reality and the 
perception by the eye being two hours and 
a half apart ; if, for example, the summit of 
the Alps on a certain morning was illumined 
by the first ray of the sun at six o'clock, an 
observer in this planet, who was provided 
either with the requisite power of vision, or 
a sufficiently good telescope, would see this 
indication of the rising of the sun at half- 
past eight of our time. 

An observer in Centaur can, of course, 



20 THE STARS 

never see the Northern hemisphere of the 
earth, because this constellation never rises 
above our horizon. But supposing it possi- 
ble, and that an observer were standing in 
this star with such powerful vision as to be 
able to distinguish all particulars upon our 
little earth shining, but feebly luminous in 
its borrowed light, he would see, in the year 
1843, the public illuminations which, in the 
year 1840, made the cities of our native 
country shine with the brightness of day 
during the darkness of night. An observer 
in Vega would see what happened with us 
twelve years ago ; and so on, until an inha- 
bitant of a star of the twelfth magnitude, if 
we imagine him with unlimited power of 
vision contemplating the earth, sees it as it 
was four thousand years ago, when Mem- 
phis was founded, and the patriarch Abra- 
ham wandered upon its surface. 

In the immeasurably great number of 
fixed stars which are scattered about in the 



AND THE EARTH. 21 

universe, floating in ether at a distance of 
between fifteen and twenty billions of miles 
from us, reckoning backwards any given 
number of years, doubtless a star could 
be found which sees the past epochs of our 
earth as if existing now, or so nearly cor- 
responding to the time, that the observer 
need wait no long time to see its condition 
at the required moment. 



Let us here stop for a moment to make 
one of the inferences to be drawn from these 
propositions, which we have laid down, and 
which are so clear and evident to every 
reasonable mind. 

We have here a perfectly intelligible per- 
ception of the idea of the omniscience of 
God with relation to past events. If we 
imagine the Deity as a man with human 
powers, but in a far superior degree, it will 
be easy for us to attribute to Him the faculty 



22 THE STARS 

and power of really overlooking and dis- 
cerning, even in the most minute particulars, 
every thing which may be sensibly and act- 
ually overlooked and seen from a real point 
of observation. 

Thus, if we wish to comprehend how any 
past earthly deed or occurrence, even after 
thousands of years, is as distinctly and im- 
mediately in God's presence as if it were 
actually taking place before His eyes, it is 
sufficient for our purpose to imagine Him 
present at a certain point, at which the light 
and the reflection of the circumstance is just 
arriving. 

Supposing that this result is established ; 
Omniscience, with respect to the past, be- 
comes identical and one and the same thing 
with actual Omnipresence with regard to 
space. For if we imagine the eye of God 
present at every point of space, the whole 
course of the history of the world appears 
to Him immediately and at once. 



AND THE EARTH. 23 

That which occurred on earth, eight 
minutes before, is glancing brightly and 
evidently in His sight in the sun. Upon the 
star of the twelfth magnitude, occurrences 
which have passed away for four thousand 
years are seen by Him ; and in the inter- 
mediate points of space are the pictures of 
the events which have happened in every 
moment since. 

Thus w-e have here the extension of Time, 
which corresponds with that of Space, 
brought so near to our sensible perception; 
that time and space cannot be considered as 
at all different from one another. For 
those things which are consecutive one to 
the other in point of time, lie next to one 
another in space. The effect does not fol- 
low after the cause, but it exists visibly in 
space near it, and a picture has spread itself 
out before us, embracing space and time 
together, and representing both so entirely 
and at once, that we are no longer able to 



24 



THE STARS 



separate or distinguish the extension of 
space from that of time. 

The omniscience of God, with regard to 
the past, is become intelligible and easy to 
us, as a sensible and material all-surveying 
view. Before His eyes, endured with im- 
measurable powers of sight, the picture of 
past thousands of years is, at the present 
moment, actually extended in space. 

Hence, when we imagine the purely hu- 
man sense of sight rendered more extended 
and acute, we are able actually to compre- 
hend one of the attributes of the Deity. 

But, according to the reverse, the excel- 
lence of this human sense becomes clear to 
us, if we have by this time understood that 
it only requires an increased optical and 
mechanical intensity of it, to communicate, 
at least by approximation, a divine power, 
viz. omniscience with regard to the past, to 
beings endowed w r ith such exalted powers 
of vision. 



AND THE EARTH. 25 

Having drawn this clear and intelligible 
inference from the previous considerations, 
let us take a step further in advance. But, 
since from this point the ideas of Possibility 
and Impossibility must be frequently referred 
to, it is necessary that we and our readers 
mutually understand each other on this 
subject. 

We call that possible which does not con- 
tradict the laws of thought; we call that 
impossible which contradicts these laws. 

Hence, every ultimate accomplishment of 
a human discovery is possible. But it is 
impossible to reach the limit which can only 
be attained on such suppositions as are 
themselves impossible according to the fore- 
going definition. 

For example, it is possible to pass through 
any given definite space in any fixed and 
definite period of time. For as with a 
steam-carriage we can travel a geographical 

3 



26 THE STARS 

mile in ten minutes, and with the electric 
telegraph can ring a bell at a distance of 
ten miles in a second, so the supposition 
that we may be enabled to move from one 
place to another with speed far surpassing 
the rapidity of light, rests upon possibility. 

We repeat that practically and experi- 
mentally such a result will never be arrived 
at, and require simply that the following be 
allowed. 

If we show that something which hitherto ' 
existed only in a dream, or in the imagina- 
tion of the enthusiastic, can appear attain- 
able and real ; but has only such impediments 
as arise from inability to render perfect cer- 
tain known mechanical powers, and to move 
from one place to another with sufficient 
rapidity ; I say that, when we have shown 
this, the question is transferred from the ju- 
risdiction of dreams and enthusiasm to the 
jurisdiction of that species of possibility 
which does not contradict the laws of 



AND THE EARTH. 27 

thought. For example : the question whe- 
ther there is such a bird as the phoenix, 
belongs to the dominion of dreams and 
folly. But, I say, if, supposing it were 
possible for us to prove that this bird actu- 
ally were living in the centre of the earth, 
or below the depths of the ocean ; and if 
this evidence were perfectly accurate, lucid, 
and irrefutable, then indeed it would still be 
impossible for us to see this bird with our 
bodily eyes ; but now that the impediments 
which oppose the realization of the sight are 
clearly and intelligibly demonstrated, we 
may proceed to our purpose of contriving 
mechanical means to overcome them in the 
present instance. 

Thus, a question hitherto only referable 
to the region of ideas, dreams, and enthu- 
siasm, being brought to such a point that 
the impediments against its resolution are 
simply mechanical and relative to space, is 
placed quite in another and much nearer 



28 THE STARS 

district ; viz. under the dominion of what 
we above designated as possible. We 
must not here forget, that this possibility is 
not to be mistaken for experimental practi- 
cability, and not to be looked upon in refer- 
ence to its execution being attained at any 
time ; but it simply bears upon the question, 
inasmuch as ideas which are, as it were, 
overcome and won out of the region of 
empty thought into this district of possibility, 
are now brought nearer to our immediate 
perception (be it well observed, perception, 
and not practicability), and are thus raised 
out of mere cloudy and feverish fancies into 
intelligible ideas. 

I now continue in the supposition, that I 
have hitherto made myself perfectly under- 
stood by the reader ; that the idea of possi- 
bility which I have laid down has as little 
to do with dreams, as it has on the other 
side with the question of practicability. 
With this idea we may maintain that it is 



AND THE EARTH. 29 

possible, i.e. not in contradiction to the laws 
of thought, that a man may travel to a star 
in a given time ; and that he may effect this, 
provided with so powerful a telescope as to 
be able to overcome every given distance, 
and every light and shadow in the object to 
be examined. With this supposition, and 
with the aid of a knowledge of the position 
and distance of every given fixed star (to 
be attained by the study of astronomy), it 
will be possible to recall sensibly to our very 
eyes an actual and true representation of 
every moment of history that has passed. 
If, for instance, we wish to see Luther 
before the council at Worms, we must trans- 
port ourselves in a second to a fixed star, 
from which the light requires about three 
hundred years (or so much more or less) in 
order to reach the earth. Thence the earth 
will appear in the same state, and with the 
same persons moving upon it, as it actually 
was at the time of the Reformation. 

3* 



30 THE STARS 

To the view of an observer from another 
fixed star, our Saviour appears now upon 
earth performing his miracles and ascending 
into heaven ; and thus every moment which 
has passed during the lapse of centuries 
down to the present time may be actually 
recalled so as to be present. 

Thus the universe encloses the pictures of 
the past, like an indestructible and incor- 
ruptible record containing the purest and 
clearest truth. And as sound propagates 
itself in the air, wave after wave ; and the 
stroke of the bell, or the roar of the cannon, 
is heard only by those who stand nearest, 
in the same moment when the clapper 
strikes the bell, or the powder explodes; 
but each more distant spectator remarks a 
still greater interval between the light and 
the sound, until the human ear is no longer 
able to perceive the sound on account of the 
distance ; or, to take a still clearer example, 
as thunder and lightning are in reality si- 



AND THE EARTH. 



31 



multaneous, but in the storm the distant 
thunder follows at the interval of some 
minutes after the flash ; so, in like manner, 
according to our ideas, the pictures of every 
occurrence propagate themselves into the 
distant ether, upon the wings of the ray of 
light; and although they become weaker 
and smaller, yet in immeasurable distance 
they still have color and form ; and as every 
thing possessing color and form is visible, 
so must these pictures also be said to be 
visible, however impossible it may be for the 
human eye to perceive it with the hitherto 
discovered optical apparatus. It is, besides, 
for the same reasons, the greatest rashness 
to wish to determine beforehand the limits 
beyond which the perfection of our optical 
instruments may never step. Who could 
have guessed at the wonderful results which 
have been discovered by means of Her- 
schel's telescope and Ehrenberg's micro- 
scope ? We do not, however, require its 



32 THE STARS 

practicability, nor even any indication that 
it is to be hoped for, since we have before 
explained to the reader the idea which we 
intend to convey under the word possible ; 
and we wish only to move in the regions of 
possibility of this kind. 

Thus, that record which spreads itself out 
further and further in the universe, by the 
vibration of the light, really and actually 
exists and is visible, but to eyes more 
powerful than those of man. 

The pictures of all secret deeds, which 
have ever been transacted, remain indis- 
solubly and indelibly for ever, reaching from 
one sun beyond another. Not only upon 
the floor of the chamber is the blood-spot 
of murder indelibly fixed, but the deed 
glances further and further into the spacious 
heaven. 

At this moment is seen, in one of the 
stars, the image of the cradle from which 
Casper Hauser was taken to be enclosed in 



AND THE EARTH. 



33 



a living tomb for so many years : in another 
star glances the flash of the shot which 
killed Charles XII. But what need is there 
to refer to individual instances ? It would 
be easy to carry it out to the smallest de- 
tails ; but we leave this to the fancy of the 
reader, and only request that he will not 
scorn these images as childish, until he has 
gone through, with us, the very serious and 
important inferences which we will now 
proceed to make. 



Let us imagine an observer, with infinite 
powers of vision, in a star of the twelfth 
magnitude. He would see the earth at this 
moment as it existed at the time of Abra- 
ham. Let us, moreover, imagine him moved 
forwards in the direction of our earth, with 
such speed that in a short time (say in an 
hour) he comes to within the distance of a 
hundred millions; of miles, being then as 



34 THE STARS 

near to us as the sun is, Avhence the earth 
is seen as it was eight minutes before ; let 
us imagine all this, quite apart from any 
claims of possibility or reality, and then we 
have indubitably the following result, — that 
before the eye of this observer the entire 
history of the world, from the time of Abra- 
ham to the present day, passes by in the 
space of an hour. For, Avhen the motion 
commenced, he viewed the earth as it was 
four thousand years ago; at the half-way, 
i.e. after half an hour, as it was two thousand 
years ago ; after three quarters of an hour, 
as it was one thousand years ago ; and after 
an hour, as it now is. 

We want no further proof, and it is evi- 
dent, beyond the possibility of contradiction, 
that if an observer were able to comprehend 
with his eye the whirling procession of these 
consecutive images, he would have lived 
through the entire history of the world, 
with all the events and transactions which 



AND THE EARTH. 



35 



have happened in the hemisphere of the 
globe, turned towards him, in a single hour. 
If we divide the hour into four thousand 
parts, so that about a second corresponds to 
each, he has seen the events of a whole year 
in a single second. They have passed 
before him with all the particulars, all the 
motions and positions of the persons occu- 
pied, with the entire changing scenery, and 
he has lived through them all, — every thing 
entire and unshortened, but only in the 
quickest succession, — and one hour was for 
him crowded with quite as many events as 
the space of four thousand years upon earth. 
If we give the observer power also to halt 
at pleasure in his path, as he is flying 
through the ether, he will be able to repre- 
sent to himself, as rapidly as he pleases, 
that moment in the world's history which 
he Avishes to observe at leisure ; provided 
he remains at a distance when this moment 
of history appears to have just arrived ; al- 



36 THE STARS 

lowing for the time which the light consumes 
in travelling to the position of the observer. 

Here again we leave to the fancy of the 
poet the prosecution of further details, and 
come to the conclusions wilieh we intend to 
make. 

As Ave imagined an observer from a star 
of the twelfth magnitude capable of ap- 
proaching the earth in an hour, we will now 
once more suppose that he can fly through 
the space in a second ; or, like the electro- 
magnetic power, in an immeasurable short 
time. 

He would now live through the period of 
four thousand years with all their events 
completely, and as exactly in a moment of 
time as he did before in the space of an 
hour. 

The human mind, it is true, grows giddy 
at the thought of such a consecutive train of 
images and events ; but we can easily at- 
tribute to a higher or the highest spirit the 



AND THE EARTH. 37 

power of distinguishing and comprehending 
with accuracy every individual wave in this 
astonishing stream. 

Hence, the notion, that the Deity makes 
use of no measurement of time, is become 
clear and intelligible to us. 

When it is written, " Before God a thou- 
sand years are as one day," it is a mere 
empty word, unless the idea is rendered 
perceptible to our senses. But when, as 
we have done, by sensible and actual suppo- 
sitions, we are enabled to show that it is 
possible for a being simply endowed with 
a higher degree of human power to live 
through the history of four thousand years 
in a second, we think we have materially 
contributed to render intelligible the philo- 
sophical statement, that time is nothing 
existing for itself, but only the form and 
repository, without which we cannot ima- 
gine its contents, viz. the series of consecu- 
tive events. 

4 



38 THE STARS 

If time was something real and actually 
existing, and necessary to the occurrence of 
events, it would be impossible for that to 
take place in a shorter time which occurs 
in a longer time. But here we see the 
entire contents of four thousand years con- 
centrated into one second, and not mutilated 
or isolated, but every event completely sur- 
rounded with all its individual particulars 
and collateral circumstances. The dura- 
tion of time is, therefore, unnecessary for 
the occurrence of events. Beginning and 
end may coalesce, and still enclose every 
thing intermediate. 



Having thus laid our contemplations 
before the reader, we will express a hope 
that the images may appear as poetical and A 
sublime to him as to us, and that an hitherto 
unknown clearness and insight has been 



AND THE EARTH. 



39 



given to his ideas of the omniscience, omni- 
presence, and eternity of God. 

In conclusion, we must acknowledge a 
slight deception practised on the reader, of 
which we have rendered ourselves guilty 
with a quiet conscience. For the images of 
human and earthly events are not carried 
forward into the universe upon the wings of 
the light in so complete a manner and with- 
out any exception as we have represented. 
For example, what takes place within the 
houses cannot be seen, because the roofs 
and walls impede the passage of rays, &c. 

Nevertheless, as we have frequently and 
expressly declared, we do not treat of a 
corporeal view, but of one indicated by 
possibility in the sense in which we have 
explained it, and we therefore considered it 
conducive to the interest of these beautiful 
and poetical ideas to defer this correction 
until the end. 



40 THE STARS 

We leave the further execution of the 
details, as we before remarked, to the poet. 
We hope, however, soon to lay before the 
public, in continuation of these pages, a 
development of the new and penetrating 
ideas which have crowded upon us in such 
abundance, as the result of the foregoing 
considerations. 



THE STARS AND THE EARTH. 



PART SECOND. 



4* 



PREFACE. 



The Author hopes that the appearance of this Second 
Part of his reflections upon Space, Time, and Eternity, 
will be received with as much indulgence as the First. 
In place of supplying the reader with conclusions, he 
has here rather to stimulate him to more distant and 
independent considerations. 

Eternal Truth, says the proverb, lies at the bottom 
of a well ; but it works and strains to rise upwards to 
the light. Frequently have the bubbles which have 
escaped from the fermentation underneath been mis- 
taken for the lost treasure ; and frequently, too, have 
we greeted their appearance with precipitate joy, as a 
manifestation of Truth itself. But even if we have 
been deceived, this sign of life and movement in the 
Spiritual "World deserves to be welcomed by us ; and on 
these grounds the following considerations may be taken 
as an indication, though perhaps a slight one, that 
Truth lies at the bottom. 



THE STARS AND THE EARTH. 



It has been shown, in the First Part, how 
the reflection of earthly events is borne far- 
ther and further upon the wings of a ray of 
light into the universe, so that the trans- 
actions which took place here thousands of 
years ago are to-day visible in a distant 
fixed star ; for every thing that has form 
and color, however weak the light, and 
however small its proportions, must be con- 
sidered to be visible. Our theory has been 
allowed up to this point ; viz. that an ob- 
server endowed with infinite powers oT 
vision, who in an immeasurably short time 
has passed from a fixed star of the twelfth 



46 THE STARS 

magnitude to the vicinity of the earth, must 
have seen completely, in this short space of 
time, the reflection of every thing which has 
passed during four thousand years upon the 
surface of the hemisphere directed towards 
him. 

From these positions we deduced con- 
sequences which have the effect of render- 
ing the ideas of Space, Time, and Eternity, 
generally and easily intelligible. 

The present little work is intended still 
further to illustrate these ideas in the same 
way, and to deliver to the public, in a com- 
prehensible form, those truths and ideas 
which have hitherto been the exclusive pro- 
perty of professed philosophers ; a service 
with which the reader should be so much 
the more pleased, since the author of these 
lines is very far from being willing to reckon 
himself among the number of these philoso- 
phers. 

As the former treatise has already made 



AND THE EARTH. 47 

our readers well acquainted with the plan 
of the argument, and the mode of demon- 
stration which we employ, so much ceremony 
and so many details will not be necessary 
in the following considerations as were 
found to be so in the former part : a friendly 
amount of attention alone will enable us to 
go through together the following points, 
which are thus briefly enunciated. 

Let us come to the question. 

Exactly in the same way in which an 
infinitely quick passage from a fixed star to 
the earth crowds together the images of all 
earthly events into a single moment, so, by 
reversing the process, the succession of these 
pictures may, in the following way, be in- 
definitely deferred. Let us suppose that the 
light, and with it the reflection of some 
earthly occurrence, arrives at a fixed star 
of the second magnitude in about twenty 
years. Let us also suppose, that the ob- 
server mounts to this star in the space of 



48 THE STARS 

twenty years and one day, starting at the 
moment when, for example, the blossom of 
a flower was beginning to unfold itself: he 
will there find the image of this flower in 
that stage of development in which it was 
one day after the commencement of its 
blooming. If he was endowed with infinite 
powers of sight and observation, and had 
been able to follow the development of the 
blossom throughout his entire journey, he 
would have had time and opportunity of 
studying for twenty years the changes which 
occurred to the flower upon earth in a single 
day. The successive changes in its form 
are, as it were, fixed before his eyes. As it 
is scarcely possible to catch with the eye a 
butterfly which flits past us, so as to detect 
the coloring of its wings ; and, on the con- 
trary, if we could follow and observe it in 
its flight, we might count out and separate 
even the minute grains of colored dust upon 
its wings ; so would the observer, who had 



AND THE EARTH. 49 

the power of following the reflection of a 
transitory event upon the wings of the light, 
be enabled to distinguish the most sudden 
changes with the greatest accuracy and 
leisure. 

In this way we have, to a certain extent, 
a Microscope for time ; for as the magnify- 
ing glass apparently enlarges a thousand 
times the space which a minute object occu- 
pies, and thus renders it possible to separate 
the small contiguous portions of which it 
consists, which appear to the naked eye as 
collected into a single point, so he who is 
able to follow the reflected images of the 
stages of a rapid development with the speed 
of a ray of light will be enabled to discover 
an endless number of separate transactions, 
of the existence of which we had no pre- 
vious notion. 

A flash of lightning, for example, ap- 
pears as a momentary light, which blinds 
us for a time, without permitting us any 
5 



50 THE STARS 

power of distinguishing the causes which 
produce it. 

But if we could follow the image of such 
a flash, only up to the sun, i. e. for eight mi- 
nutes, w r e should be able to unfold secrets 
respecting the nature of the phenomenon, 
which would not be less astounding of their 
kind than the living worlds which the micro- 
scope exposes to our view in a drop of 
water. 

Moreover, if, as we have remarked, the 
revolutions of our earth, at the time of 
the Deluge, are at the present time reflected 
upon a star of the twelfth magnitude, as we 
should see (if we were provided with infinite 
visual powers) the events which took place 
upon the star, not as they are to-day, but 
as they were thousands of years ago ; so an 
inhabitant of that star, mounting away with 
the images and rays of light, would be able 
\o solve, by his own personal inspection, all 
the problems of Geology and the Creation, 



AxM) THE EARTH. 51 

concerning which our inquirers into natural 
history are to this day puzzling themselves. 
And this reflection does not refer to our 
earth alone, but the inhabitant of each star 
sees the past occurrences of other stars ; and 
the events, not only of our world, but of all 
worlds, are at present expanded in space as 
the greatest and truest History of the Uni- 
verse. 

It was laid down and inculcated as strong- 
ly as possible in the First Part of this w r ork, 
that, in these considerations, we only treat of 
such things as can be imagined to be possible, 
and that we avoid altogether any claims 
towards reality or practicability. To bring, 
however, our ideas one step nearer to those 
who cannot altogether resign their notions 
of probability, we will make the following 
remark: The fact that more distant objects 
appear to us smaller and with less distinct 
outlines and colors than those which are 
near, depends in the first place upon the 



52 THE STARS 

formation of the human eye, and secondly 
upon the opacity of the atmosphere. 

The rays of sight diverge from the eye, 
so that a very small body close to it fills up 
the interval between two such rays ; whilst, 
at a greater distance, a much larger body is 
necessary to fill up the proportionately in- 
creased space between them. If we hold up 
a shilling at arm's length before our eyes, 
we may completely conceal the sun with it. 
If, on the contrary, an organ of vision was 
constructed in such a manner that the rays 
proceeded in parallel lines, every object 
w r ould appear in proportion to every other, 
and of its own proper size, without any refe- 
rence to the distance between it and the eye. 
We certainly should not see distant bodies 
entire, but only such small portions of them 
as are proportionate to the size of the organ 
of vision, constructed after this vision ; but 
this little portion would be visible with equal 
clearness at every distance, and a blade of 



AND THE EARTH. 



5S 



grass upon the most distant fixed star could 
not escape our sight, provided our atmo- 
sphere was clear, and freed from all disturb- 
ing influences. 

By the supposition of an organ of vision 
of such a construction as this, which assu- 
redly no one will consider impossible to be 
imagined, it is hoped that the possibility of 
all that we have brought forward is rendered 
much more intelligible to many readers. 

It would, nevertheless, be but fruitless 
trouble to spin out the thread of these 
thoughts any longer, if no further result 
could be deduced from them than the proof 
that some one thing would be possible if 
some other thing were possible ; for one 
such combination of assumptions, however it 
may lay claim to some momentary interest, 
would remain but an empty sport of the 
fancy, which flits across the mind of the 
reader without leaving any lasting effect 
behind. 



54 THE STARS 

As we proceed in our reflections, we be- 
come convinced that we can build up a 
more solid superstructure by the help of 
this airy scaffolding, since the consequences 
which we think we can deduce will enable 
the reader to grasp the ideas of Space and 
Time as it were by intuition, whilst, without 
some such instructions, the description of 
metaphysical objects is frequently mere 
words for the generality of men. For it is 
one thing to acknowledge a certain position 
to be true because we cannot refute the 
premises from which it is deduced, and 
another to comprehend it so immediately 
and completely, that from this time it is in 
itself intelligible to us, and we consider 
any thing which contradicts it to be absurd. 
Thus, for example, he to whom the geo- 
metrical proposition, that the angles of a 
triangle are together equal to two right 
angles, has been intelligibly demonstrated, 
must acknowledge the truth of it ; but he 



AND THE EARTH. 55 

has not necessarily comprehended the pro- 
position in its strictest sense. For this, it is 
requisite that he should get that close in- 
sight into the fact, that it belongs to the 
very existence of a triangle that the angles 
shall be together equal to two right angles, 
and that a triangle without this property is 
as inconceivable and as absurd as a four- 
cornered circle. 

To prepare a way for such intuitive per- 
ception, and such immediate knowledge 
with respect to the nature of Time and 
Space, and to facilitate its acquisition, is 
the object of the following reflections. They 
shall from their plainness constrain the reader 
to understand, and shall force upon him 
clear notions with respect to matters from 
which he has often turned away without 
any consideration. 

Truly, the interest which men take in 
things is very varied, and frequently contra- 
dictory : what appears to one as of the 



56 



THE STARS 



highest importance, appears of no material 
consequence to another. There is, however, 
one question which must interest every one, 
even though his leisure and the bent of his 
mind may not permit him to devote himself 
earnestly and without intermission to the 
labor of attempting its solution. This 
question is the How and the Wherefore of 
all things ? It is one from which the mind 
of man cannot be repulsed. When a child, 
he asks after the Maker of heaven and 
earth, and is relieved and contented by 
being directed to an all-wise and perfectly 
good Almighty Creator. To more mature 
reflection, this answer is no longer sufficient, 
because the attempt to deduce the multipli- 
city of things in the world around us from 
one single cause, viz. from God, leads us 
to contradictions which it is the province of 
Philosophy to unravel. Our mind can in- 
deed only attribute a single effect to a single 
cause ; and when we perceive manifold and 



AND THE EARTH. 57 

different effects, it becomes at once requisite 
to our intellect to seek for manifold and 
various causes. This is a law which is so 
intolerant of exceptions, that we unwillingly 
suppose a difference to exist even where our 
senses cannot discern it. For example, the 
single ray of the sun gives us light and 
warmth : it is in our thoughts at once con- 
sidered double, and analyzed into a lighting 
and a heating ray, because we are abso- 
lutely compelled, even against our inclina- 
tion, to look out for two causes, a lighting 
and a warming power, for the two effects, 
light and heat. 

Now, if, in consequence of some certain 
inherent property of our minds, we are 
compelled to look for a single First Cause, 
and a single Creator, for the sum of all the 
causes and effects which are manifest in the 
world, which fill it, and which indeed are 
the world, the First Cause must be entirely 
single and one, because, if we are unwilling 



58 THE STARS 

to admit in It any difference or variety, we 
are again as irresistibly driven to the ques- 
tion, What can be the cause of these differ- 
ences and varieties ? It is, however, absurd 
to inquire after the origin of the First Cause 
of all things, because the very essence of a 
First Cause consists in the fact, that the 
inquiry after some more distant origin is 
impossible. 

To solve and remove this contradiction 
and absurdity is, as I have already remarked, 
the province of philosophers. It has fre- 
quently been asserted, that they have dis- 
covered the solution ; but the answer to the 
question " How ? " is still due to the unini- 
tiated : since philosophers allege, that the 
most intense study of philosophy is requisite 
to enable us to understand the results at 
which they arrive. 

We are not, however, sufficiently submis- 
sive to be put off with such a mysterious 
answer ; and the circumstance itself makes 



AND THE EARTH. 59 

us suspect, that the philosophers cannot have 
convinced one another, but that the succes- 
sor always confutes his predecessor ; so 
that, in the most favorable view, philosophy 
has taken a step farther each time, but has 
not yet arrived at the goal. 

Now, since all hope, upon the side of phi- 
losophers, has been cut off from us, of our 
ever arriving at the solution of the contra- 
diction from which the intellect in vain 
struggles to free itself, we will make an 
attempt to point out, in a generally intelli- 
gible manner, a path by which the solution 
becomes conceivable : — to point out a path, 
I say; that is, I point out the way, and 
prove it, and render it intelligible that this 
path, if it is really pervious, must lead to the 
goal. Whether it can be travelled, must be 
decided by the inquiries, to stimulate and to 
advance which is the chief end of these lines, 
and the most earnest wish of the author. 
The course which our reflections will take, 



60 THE STARS 

apparently leads us away from the " Stars 
and the Earth ; " but we shall return to 
them, and beg the reader to accompany us, 
step by step, to the conclusions w r hich are 
the end of our journey. 

But, as I have already said, since there is 
a contradiction between the assumption of a 
single original Cause, and the world with its 
manifold changes and phenomena, it follows 
that there is either no First Cause or no 
Multiplicity in the world, or, lastly, that 
both these assumptions are false. 

To point out one of these three possible 
sources of error is, therefore, a step upon 
the road to truth. 

If, for example, it is shown that the va- 
rious and manifold phenomena in the world 
are really not various and manifold, but that 
they are only apparently so, the necessity of 
discovering for every variety a particular 
cause no longer exists, and thus a Single 
Cause becomes sufficient. We will show 



AND THE EARTH. 61 

that such a view is possible, and how it 
is so. 

As a single and colorless ray of the sun, 
when it is seen through a prism, is decom- 
posed into a broad surface with seven differ- 
ent colors, so a world which was really only 
a single undivisible point might, by our hu- 
man senses, and by man's method of con- 
templation and comprehension, be divided, 
as through a prism with a thousand sides, 
into the endless multitude of phenomena 
which are round about us. 

All differences and distinctions which we 
perceive are of two kinds : first, the differ- 
ence between things which are perceptible 
to our senses, as the sun, the heavenly 
bodies, men, beasts, and plants ; and, sec- 
ondly, the difference in matters beyond the 
cognizance of our senses, as of thoughts 
and truths. Thus, to mark out the way by 
which we can lead ourselves to consider the 
entire world as a single indivisible unit, we 



62 THE STARS 

must solve a double problem : — To show, 
first, that the different thoughts and truths 
may be looked upon as a single truth ; and, 
secondly, that the parts of the universe and 
of the history of the world which bear refer- 
ence to Time and Space can also be viewed 
together as a single indivisible point. 

The first part of the question is that which 
may be solved most easily, and in the most 
intelligible way. There is only one Truth ; 
and if we think that we can distinguish 
many, it only depends upon the limited 
nature of our understanding, which sepa- 
rates and decomposes this unity into many 
rays. 

Let us begin with quite a simple exam- 
ple : Man is mortal, he thinks and he feels. 
These are three separate and different truths 
according to our ordinary ideas. But the 
difference only depends upon the fact, that 
our mind is not able at once and completely 
to grasp and understand the idea of Man, 



AND THE EARTH. 



63 



with all its consequences. If this was the 
case, and if, as soon as we heard the word 
Man, there was present in our minds every- 
thing which is requisite to the realization of 
the idea, we should immediately entertain 
the notion of Mortality, of Thought, and of 
Sensation ; and it would not at first occur 
to us to analyze the idea, and to say " Man 
is mortal," any more than we should think 
that we are saying something particular, 
when we state that a square has four cor- 
ners, because this property is already under- 
stood in the object, and together with it. 

A second example will make this more 
evident. For one who has fully compre- 
hended and knows what a triangle is, it is 
not requisite that he should be first informed 
that a triangle has three sides and three 
angles, that the three angles are together 
equal to two right angles, and that three 
lines drawn perpendicularly from the angles 
to the opposite sides cut one another at the 



64 



THE STARS 



same point ; in short, all that mathematicians 
have made out concerning the properties of 
a triangle by a troublesome scientific pro- 
cess ; but he understands it all at once. He 
who has completely comprehended the idea 
of the globe of our earth understands at 
once and immediately that it is round, that 
it is heavy, of what chemical components it 
is formed, the course it runs, and what crea- 
tures it produces. He has included Man, 
with all his deeds and transactions, his per- 
ceptions and ideas, his understanding and 
the illusions of his senses, as necessary attri- 
butes of the earth ; and has seen that he 
could not bring himself to describe or im- 
agine one of these points or truths as any 
thing special or separate, because he has 
comprehended all as indivisible and distinct 
consequences, and components of the idea 
Earth. He can put down and acknowledge 
each of these positions as a distinct truth, 
just as little as we can think that we are 



AND THE EARTH. 65 

saying something particular when we re- 
mark, " A square has four angles." 

Lastly, if we enlarge our ideas to the 

Universe, to the whole Creation, in which all 

» 
experience, truths, and ideas are included, 

it follows that, for the most perfect acquaint- 
ance with it, only one truth and one idea 
exists, viz. the Universe ; and that the sub- 
division of this one universal knowledge is 
as purely human, and as certainly depends 
upon the imperfection of human powers of 
perception, as the necessity of dividing a 
single ray of the sun into a double power, 
viz. a lighting and heating ray, because it 
enlightens and warms us at the same time. 
For the universe is a great organic whole ; 
and he who has understood and entirely 
comprehended the idea of an organized 
being, has also grasped and comprehended 
all its separate component parts. 

In order to point out the way in which 
we can bring ourselves to consider the 

6* 



66 THE STARS 

universe as one indivisible unit, we had, as 
I have above remarked, two questions to 
solve ; 1st, that there is only one truth, or, 
at least, that all truths may be considered 
as a single one, and one which is only divisi- 
ble from the imperfection of human know- 
ledge. This first part of the proposition 
I think we have proved ; in the second 
part we have to show that the phenomena 
of the universe which are referrible to Space 
and Time may be equally well conceived 
as forming together a single point. 

By means of the journey which we have 
imagined an observer to take from a star of 
the twelfth magnitude, down to the earth, in 
an immeasurably short space of time, we 
have shown that there is a point of observa- 
tion from which the whole expanse of time, 
with the occurrences which took place in it, 
appear to be compressed into a single point. 
But as, in such a case, the events themselves 
do not in reality appear to us, but we see 



AND THE EARTH. 67 

their images on the light in the quickest 
succession, the problem still remains : — to 
compress these events into a single point, 
and to make it intelligible that they them- 
selves, and not only their images, can hap- 
pen most completely in a single moment of 
time ; and, even more, that a space of time, 
which we call long or short, is actually and 
really caused by our human mode of com- 
prehension. 

Let us suppose, that from some given 
time, for example from to-day, the course 
of the stars and of our earth becomes twice 
as rapid as before, and that the year passes 
by in six months, each season in six weeks, 
and each day in twelve hours ; that the 
period of the life of man is in like manner 
reduced to one half of its present duration, 
so that, speaking in general terms, the long- 
est human life, instead of eighty years, lasts 
for forty, each of which contains as many of 
the new days of twelve hours as the former 



68 THE STARS 

years did, when the days were twenty-four 
hours long ; the drawing of our breath and 
the stroke of the pulse would proceed with 
double their usual rapidity, and our new 
period of life would appear to us of the 
normal length. 

The hands of the clock would no longer 
make the circuit in one hour and in twelve, 
but the long hand in thirty minutes, the 
short one in six hours. The development 
of plants and animals would take place with 
double their usual speed ; and the wind and 
the lightning would consume, in their rapid 
course, but one half of their present time. 

With these suppositions, I ask, in what 
way should we be affected by the change ? 
The answer to this question is, We should 
be cognizant of no change. We should 
even consider one who supposed or who 
attempted to point out that such a change 
had taken place was mad, or we should look 
upon him as an enthusiast. We should 



AND THE EARTH. 69 

have no possible ground to consider that 
any other condition had existed. 

Now, as we can determine the lapse of 
any period of time only by comparison, or 
by measuring it with some other period, and 
as every division of time which we use in our 
comparison or in our measurements has been 
lessened by one half its duration, the original 
proportion would still remain unchanged. 

Our forty years would pass as the eighty 
did ; we should perform every thing twice 
as quickly as before; but as our life, our 
breath, and movements are proportionately 
hastened, it would be impossible to measure 
the increased speed, or even to remark it. 
As far as we could tell, every thing had 
remained precisely as it was before, not 
comparatively, but absolutely, provided Ave 
had no standard external to the accelerated 
course of events in the world by which we 
could perceive the changes or measure them. 

A similar result would follow, if we ima- 



70 THE STARS 

giaed the course of time reduced to the 
fourth, instead of to the half, so that the year 
would consist of three months, the greatest 
age of man would be reduced to twenty of 
the present years, and our entire life, with 
that of all the creatures about us, would be 
passed in a proportionately shortenedLperiod. 
In this case, we should not only /p^ceive 
the change, but we should in reality suffer 
no change, since we should live to see every 
thing which w T e should otherwise have seen ; 
and all the experience and the events of our 
life, in their duration and with their con- 
sequences, would remain unchanged in the 
relations which they bear to one another. 

For the same reasons, if the period and 
processes of life, and the course of events 
in the world around us, were accelerated a 
thousand or a million times, or, in short, if 
they were infinitely shortened, we should 
obtain a similar result ; and we can in this 
way imagine the entire course of the history 



AND THE EARTH. 71 

of the world compressed into a single im- 
measurably short space of time, without our 
being able to perceive the change ; in fact, 
without our having undergone any change. 
For, whether any space of time is longer or 
shorter is a question which can only be 
answered, and which can, indeed, only be 
looked upon as reasonable, if we are able to 
compare the time to be measured with some 
other hmited period, but not if we compare 
it to the endless duration which is looked 
upon as without beginning and without end, 
which we call " Time." 

Hence the proposition, that for the occur- 
rence of any given event a certain lapse of 
time is requisite, may be altogether rejected. 
This time which elapses during the occur- 
rence is rather accidental than necessary, 
and it might as easily be any other period. 
"We shall bring another example to our aid 
to illustrate the point more clearly : A tune 
may be performed in different times, either 



72 THE STARS 

quicker or slower, without altering thereby 
in any way its nature. The intervals, the 
succession of the tones, and the proportion- 
ate length of one note to another, remain 
unchanged ; but the impression which it 
makes upon the hearer will be different, if 
his entire life has not undergone a corre- 
sponding and proportionate change. Now, 
suppose a musical clock is so contrived as 
to play any piece in a space of time which 
may be determined at pleasure : this time 
may be lengthened or shortened, and it may 
be so much shortened, that it can become 
almost infinitely small. It is therefore pos- 
sible, according to the notion of possibility, 
which was laid down in the First Part, to 
cause the longest piece of music to be played 
in an immeasurably short space of time, and 
even although our ears would be as little 
able to distinguish and appreciate the suc- 
cession of the separate parts, as our eyes 
are to unravel the over-crowded and rush- 



AND THE EARTH. 73 

ing stream of the images in a history of four 
thousand years in a single moment, yet, in 
one case as in the other, we only require 
that the human senses should become finer 
and more perfect, in order to render such 
comprehension possible. 

Thus, as the tune remains unchanged In 
its nature, even when performed in the 
shortest space of time, — and it can and 
must be imagined to exist in itself, without 
reference to any time in which it sounds, — 
and as such a space was only necessary for 
the mode of organization of our senses, 
which is of such a kind that the ear cannot 
perceive the different tones in any other way 
than successively, so the succession of events 
can and must be considered independently 
of the time in which they happen ; and, on 
the other hand, Time can as little be ima- 
gined to exist alone and in itself as Ave can 
imagine "Allegro" and " Adagio" to exist 
without any tune or melody. 



74 THE STARS 

But if it is objected, that, even when the 
lapse of time has been infinitely shortened, 
there still remains some period, and that the 
expansion of time has not been completely 
set aside, it may be answered scientifically, 
that, in its strictest sense, the idea of any 
thing infinitely small is the same as the idea 
of nothing ; for, as long as more than nothing 
remains, Ave must continue to divide it ; and 
the search after an infinitely small space is 
only satisfied, when we have arrived at that 
which is really indivisible, viz. a point which 
has no parts. 

But, by continuing the comparison to a 
tune which we have commenced, we can 
refute the objection in a popular way. 

It does not require even the shortest space 
of time to comprehend the idea of the tune, 
or even to present it to our senses, and com- 
municate it to those of others. This simply 
follows from the consideration of the page 
of music upon which it is written. Here 



AND THE EARTH. 75 

the tune exists entire and altogether, and 
not in successive parts ; and the time which 
a musician requires to read it is not caused 
by the nature of the melody, but is a con- 
sequence of the impossibility of taking in 
and understanding the whole contents of the 
page in an indivisibly short space of time. 
Thus a looking-glass represents the objects 
which are placed opposite to it, not one after 
the other, but altogether and at once, with- 
out requiring for the purpose the lapse of 
any time whatever. From all these con- 
siderations, it becomes sufficiently clear that 
Time is merely a mode and condition by 
which the human mind, with the assistance 
of human senses, perceives the occurrence 
of events ; whilst the events themselves, in 
all their fulness and perfection, may occur 
in a longer or a shorter time, and thus must 
be looked upon as independent of time. A 
thought or an idea is something momentary. 
He who has such an idea has it entire and 



76 THE STARS 

at once. But he who wishes to communi- 
cate it to others requires for the purpose a 
certain time, just as such a space is also 
necessary for those to whom it is communi- 
cated. Hence, time is not necessary for the 
origination or existence of the idea, but only 
for its communication and comprehension ; 
and the idea exists as independently of time 
as, according to the points we have discus- 
sed before, the entire history of the world 
can and must be looked upon as independ- 
ent of time. Time is only the rhythm of the 
world's history. 

Having arrived at this conclusion, it will 
be useful to recapitulate, as clearly as we 
can, the course of our reflections. 

Of the three ways in which we thought 
we could solve the contradiction between a 
Manifold World and a Single Creator, we 
entered upon that one which denied the ex- 
istence of the multiplicity in the world, and 
by which it can be supposed that the world 



AND THE EARTH. 77 

is really single and indivisible, and that it is 
by the human mind and its limited mode of 
comprehension subdivided into a multiplicity 
of phenomena. 

In order to show how such Unity can be 
imagined, we have first reduced the empire 
of thought to the single idea of the universe, 
and then the empire of phenomena appre- 
ciable to our senses remained, which is mani- 
fold in its nature, because its parts and its 
events become perceptible to us by being 
separated and referred to Time and Space. 
But we have so far set aside the notion of 
Time, in that we have pointed out that it 
does not exist in and for itself, but that it is 
only a mode by which we observe events, 
and by which their occurrence comes to our 
knowledge. We must, in like manner, ex- 
amine the idea of Space. 

As it appeared in our examination into the 
essence of Time, that the question whether 
any thing lasted a longer or a shorter time 
7* 



78 THE STARS 

had any meaning only when the period was 
compared with some other limited given 
period of time, but that, in comparison to 
Endless Time, the question whether a cer- 
tain space was long or short was nonsense, 
since every finite thing compared with some- 
thing infinitely greater appears like nothing ; 
so, in like manner, it will appear with regard 
to the expansion of Space. The entire cre- 
ated universe, considered with respect to its 
limits, is a mere point in that which we call 
endless space, even if we imagine these 
limits to extend beyond the most distant 
fixed stars and nebulae. This proposition, 
which we have so often laid down and 
argued from, does not become entirely in- 
telligible to the generality of mankind, until 
we illustrate it in a way as appreciable to 
our senses as we did with respect to time. 
The plan of our illustration is also exactly 
similar to the former one. 
/""Let us suppose, for example, that, from 



AND THE EARTH. 79 

the present moment, all the measurements 
of the universe are reduced to the half of 
their size, and that all distances are equally 
shortened, it would be absolutely impossible 
for us to perceive, or indeed to believe if it 
was told us, that any change had happened 
to us, or to the world around ; and we might, 
like Gulliver's Liliputians, fairly consider 
ourselves perfectly grown men. But if 
every thing was lessened a million or a bil- 
lion times, it would be as little noticed by 
us as when the reduction of all measure- 
ments to the half of their size took place ; 
and if our system of fixed stars, with all that 
it contains, was suddenly contracted to the 
size of a grain of sand, we should move and 
exist with the same freedom from restraint, 
and with the same convenience, in that little 
world, as we now do in this which seems so 
large to us. No change would have taken 
place in the universe, as long as we did not 
imagine another universe beyond it ; and 
7t 



80 



THE STARS 



the question whether any such change had 
taken place would have as little meaning in 
reference to space as a similar question had 
in respect to the duration of time, which we 
supposed to have been suddenly shortened. 

In this way it is shown, that, to our re- 
collection and knowledge, a proportionate 
change in the whole space of the universe 
would be completely and altogether unob- 
served and imperceptible. 

But even though in these considerations 
we have imagined the universe to have been 
compressed into so small and narrow a com- 
pass, yet we have not altogether done away 
with space, because we can still imagine 
something more minute than the infinitely 
small space, viz. an indivisible point. In 
our reflections concerning an infinitely short 
period of time, we have already shown that, 
strictly and scientifically considered, they 
are one and the same thing. "We can, how- 
ever, show, in an intelligible way, that it is 



AND THE EARTH. 81 

conceivable, and not at all contrary to rea- 
son to assume, that the expanse of Space 
and the distance and propinquity of various 
objects do not really exist, but that Space or 
propinquity is only apparent, and originates 
from the fact, that, with our circumscribed 
understanding and the limited powers of 
our senses, we can contemplate the one in- 
divisible point, the Universe, in no other 
way than by dividing and stretching it out 
into length, breadth, and height. These are 
the only three properties which we need 
attribute to Space ; but they are, of course, 
indispensably necessary, and without them 
physical existence cannot be imagined : and 
length cannot exist without breadth, nor 
breadth without height ; for in those cases 
the body would have only length and height, 
or only breadth and length. That which 
has only two of these dimensions is not a 
body, but only the boundary of a body, viz. 
a superficies. Li like manner, that which 



82 THE STARS 

has only one dimension, viz. length, is no 
longer a surface, but the edge of a surface, 
viz. a line. Thus, in order that any physi- 
cal space can exist, it is of course absolutely 
necessary that all three dimensions should 
exist, as, in other words, all three are neces- 
sary properties of Space. 

But a necessary property of any thing is 
that without which it is no longer the same, 
but something else. For example, the ne- 
cessary properties of a square are, that all 
four sides should be equal, and all angles 
right angles. If one side is no longer like 
another, or if one angle is no longer a right 
angle, the figure ceases to be a square, and 
becomes some other kind of quadrilateral 
figure, and we should not listen to any one 
who would persuade us that it was still a 
square. Let us apply this to the idea of 
Space, or, what is the same thing, to the 
idea of a body. It is necessary to the ex- 
istence of any limited body, that it should 



AND THE EARTH. 83 

have length, breadth, and height, that it 
should be bounded by surfaces, and that the 
edges of these surfaces should be formed by 
lines, and that the ends of the lines should be 
points. All these properties must exist toge- 
ther, otherwise the body itself does not exist. 
Now, if we can imagine evidence which 
will bring us to the conclusion that in any 
case a body has not three dimensions, and 
a surface has not two, and if such evidence 
is incontrovertible and not to be refuted, it 
would necessarily follow, that this body and 
this surface are not a body and a surface, 
but that some delusion of our senses, or 
some false conclusions, had induced us to 
consider them so. The same may be said 
of a point. A point is that which has no 
parts. Now, if a point was found in which, 
nevertheless, there were different parts, it 
would not be a point ; or the difference of 
the parts would not be a real difference, but 
only one which would become apparent 



84 THE STARS 

from our limited powers of thought and 
perception. These conclusions are clear 
and incontrovertible ; and, supposing that the 
reader has completely agreed with us up to 
this point, we proceed a step further. 

There is an optical apparatus, known to 
all of us under the name of a Magic Lan- 
tern. It is constructed in the following 
manner : A picture, painted upon glass with 
transparent colors, is thrown upon a lens 
which has the property of refracting all the 
rays incident upon its surface, and of con- 
centrating them to a single point, called the 
focus. Through this point the refracted 
rays continue their course onwards, and 
diverge from one another as much as they 
previously converged : they form, therefore, 
beyond the focus a cone of rays with the 
apex at the focus, and which, at any distance 
from the apex, forms an inverted image of 
the picture which was originally thrown 
upon the lens, as can be proved by directing 



AND THE EARTH. 85 

the cone of rays upon the wall, when the 
reversed picture is seen, larger in proportion 
to the distance of the focus from the wall. 
If the necessary lenses were ground with 
perfect optical and mathematical accuracy, 
and if the position of the glasses was also 
strictly perfect, and the wall completely 
smooth, upon approaching the magic lantern 
so near that the focus falls upon the wall, 
the light would be seen as a single distinct 
bright point. In this point, the entire sur- 
face of the picture is concentrated, and from 
it the picture spreads out again upon the 
wall if the apparatus is moved to a greater 
distance. Now this Point contains the 
many-colored surface of the picture com- 
pletely, with all the parts which actually 
compose it, and with the form and color of 
every single figure ; and the whole picture 
is really and truly in this single point, for 
here it has been concentrated by the refrac- 
tion of the rays. We have thus made it 
readily apparent to our senses that the indi- 



86 THE STARS 

visible point contains within it different parts, 
contiguous to one another according to our 
usual mode of comprehension ; and thus we 
have come to a direct contradiction of an 
idea which has generally been considered 
quite clear and incontrovertible. The solu- 
tion of the contradiction is found in the 
proposition of which it is the object of this 
little work to prove the possibility ; viz. that 
the Universe, or Space, as far as it is within 
the scope of our senses, does not exist in 
the expanded and varied forms which we 
see around us, but that the expansion and 
the differences only depend upon our human 
mode of perception, and are Caused by it : 
for, if here, by means of the magic lantern, a 
surface has become a point, and if the point 
contains all the various and distinct parts of 
the surface, we have shown that the differ- 
ences which appear by the separation or 
juxtaposition of the component parts do 
not require Space as absolutely necessary to 
their existence, but that one single and indi- 



AND THE EARTH. 87 

visible point can obtain them all. But, if a 
surface is no longer necessary that we may- 
understand the juxtaposition of bodies, its 
very existence is disturbed, and a point is 
advanced to the dignity of a surface, for it 
contains and embraces the whole contents 
of a surface ; but, when we wish to perceive 
the contents with human eyes, we must 
return and expand the point into the surface 
which it had before included. 

Now, since we have in this way shown 
that a surface can only be considered a 
means of rendering the juxtaposition and 
relation of images cognizable to our senses, 
in other words, that it is a mere mode of 
observation, for that which, as far as its 
essence is concerned, may be contained in 
a single point, and since one of the three 
dimensions of Space has in this way been 
brought down from something real to a 
mere mode of contemplation, we have de- 
prived Space of one of its necessary pro- 
perties, and it is no longer real and true 



88 THE STARS AND THE EARTH. 

Space, but has become a mere condition by 
which objects are rendered perceptible to us. 
We have thus completed the course of the 
argument which we proposed ; for we have 
shown that a point of view is conceivable, 
from which the universe no longer requires 
the expansion of Time and Space in order 
to exist, and to be intelligible to us ; and 
since our human method of contemplation, 
inasmuch as it considers this expausion, with 
all its phenomena, as real and necessary, 
leads only into inextricable contradictions, 
so we are compelled to seek for the higher 
point, and to look upon it as conceivable 
and possible, even if we are never able 
actually to realize it, or to look down upon 
the World from it, in consequence of the 
limited nature of our powers ; for with such 
a point of view, and by it alone, can we im- 
agine and completely understand the uni- 
verse to be the work of a Single Creator. 

THE END. 



ERRATA. 

age 24, 6th line from top, for "endured," read 

ued. 

age 70, 8th line from top, for " not only perceive," 

i not only not perceive. 



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